Azeri President to visit Iran in February

IRNA web site, Tehran
29 Dec 04

Baku, 30 December: Azerbaijan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmar
Mammamdyarov said here Wednesday [29 December] that President Ilham
Aliyev’s upcoming sensitive state visit of Iran is aimed at deepening
bilateral ties.

Mammamdyarov made the comment in a meeting with Islamic Republic of
Iran’s Ambassador to Baku Afshar Soleymani.

Referring to the process of preparing the documents to be signed
during President Aliyev’s February state visit of Iran by the two
countries’ officials, the Azeri foreign minister appreciated the
efforts made by Iran’s Embassy in that respect.

Elmar Mammamdyarov meanwhile thanked his Iranian counterpart for
sending a congratulation message on the occasion of the Christian New
Year, asking the Iranian ambassador to convey his congratulation on
the occasion to Dr Kharrazi.

The two officials during the meeting also evaluated the outcome of the
Iranian health and defence ministers’ recent trips to Baku as “quite
positive and important in expansion of bilateral ties.”

The Iranian envoy, too, said during the meeting, “During the Health,
Treatment and Medical Education Minister Masud Pezeshkiyan’s trip to
Azerbaijan the draft for the two countries’ health and medical
memorandum of understanding to be signed by the two countries’
presidents was prepared, and approved by the two countries’
officials.”

He added, “The two countries also reached agreement on construction of
a hospital, manufacturing medicine, and kidney transplant surgeries in
Azerbaijan by the Iranian side.

Soleymani announced, “Kidney transplant surgeries would be done at one
of Baku’s hospitals by Iranian physicians.”

The Iranian envoy expressed certainty that President Aliyev’s
three-day state visit, in response to President Khatami’s state visit
of Baku in 2004, would open a new chapter in two countries’ relations.

Some of the other issues addressed during the meeting included other
aspects of bilateral ties, regional developments, and reciprocal
support of the two countries for each other at international scenes.